MAPUTO. — In the unlikely event of the Mozambican government ever accepting the demand from the former rebel movement Renamo for Mozambican and international mediators and observers at the dialogue between the government and Renamo, it would need a much larger table.

The latest Renamo letter on the subject, addressed to president Armando Guebuza, and dated December 5, proposes a total of 14 mediators and observers.

The letter, a copy of which is in AIM’s possession, wants the dialogue (which Renamo insists on calling “negotiations”) to be mediated by Mozambican constitutional lawyer Gilles Cistac, Italian bishop Matteo Zuppi, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, and an unnamed representative of the European Union.

This line-up — one Mozambican and three foreign mediators — is, not coincidentally, the same as the composition of the mediating team in the peace talks held in Rome from 1990 to 1992. (The Mozambican mediator in those days was the bishop of Beira, Jaime Goncalves, and the three foreigners were all Italians — Mario Raffaelli representing the Italian government, and Andrea Riccardi and Matteo Zuppi of the Catholic Sant’Egidio Community. Zuppi has subsequently been promoted to the post of Auxiliary Bishop of Rome).

As for observers, Renamo is proposing four Mozambicans — Anglican bishop Dinis Sengulane, prominent academic and vice chancellor of the Polytechnic University, Lourenco do Rosario, the former vice chancellor of Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, Filipe Couto and Alice Mabota, chairperson of the Mozambican Human Rights League.

Six foreign observers are proposed, but all are countries rather than individuals. They are: the United States, China, Portugal, Cape Verde, Kenya and Botswana.

Ever since September, the government has repeatedly made it clear that it is not prepared to internationalise its discussions with Renamo and so will not agree to invite any foreign observers, much less mediators.

The Renamo proposal is thus a non-starter and Renamo must have known that when it submitted it.

The letter, signed by Augusto Mateus, political advisor to Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, does not state whether Renamo has contacted all its proposed mediators and observers.

The letter lists the tasks Renamo wants mediators and observers to undertake. The mediators, it says, should “propose the methodology of the talks”, “mediate, moderate the discussions, accompany and coordinate the talks”, and “draw up a synthesis of each session of talks, indicating the points agreed and those where there is disagreement”.

The observers, Mateus adds, would “accompany the talks, and may give their opinions on them, if they deem fit”. They would also report back to the countries they represent.

They are instructed “to maintain the strictest impartiality in their duties”, “refrain from making personal or premature comments about their observations” and must not “interfere in the negotiations”.

Since none of the proposed mediators and observers will attend talks without an invitation from the government, and the government has made it very clear that no representatives of foreign governments will be invited, all these provisions are just a waste of breath.

The list presented by Mateus on December 5 is quite different from the proposal made by the head of the Renamo delegation to the dialogue, parliamentary deputy Saimone Macuiana, just a week earlier.

In a letter dated November 29, Macuiana said nothing about mediators. He called for Mozambican observers (without advancing any names), and observers from SADC, the African Union, the European Union, the US and the United Nations.

Three days later, Macuiana had changed his mind, and sent a letter, dated December 2, demanding “national and international mediators”, but without naming any individuals or countries.

In fact, the government had already made one concession to Renamo. In November it accepted that there could be Mozambican (but not foreign) observers at the talk. In particular, the government was willing to welcome Bishop Sengulane and Lourenco do Rosario to the dialogue table.

These two men had already acted as go-betweens, ferrying messages between Dhlakama and president Armando Guebuza earlier in the year.

No comments:

Pan-African News Wire

The Pan-African News Wire is an international electronic press service designed to foster intelligent discussion on the affairs of African people throughout the continent and the world. The press agency was founded in January of 1998 and has published thousands of articles and dispatches in newspapers, magazines, journals, research reports, blogs and websites throughout the world.
The PANW represents the only daily international news source on pan-african and global affairs.
PANW editor Abayomi Azikiwe is often solicited by various newspaper, radio and television stations for comment and analysis on local, national and world affairs. He has served as a political analyst for Press TV and RT worldwide satellite television news networks as well as other international media in the areas of African and world affairs. He has appeared on numerous television and radio networks including Press TV, RT, Al Jazeera, China Global Television Network, BBC, NPR, Radio Netherlands, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, South Africa Radio 786, Belgian Pirate Radio, TVC Nigeria and others.